Organizational Culture and Innovations

Audronė Poškienė

Abstract

The article is based on the experience of designingand delivering special courses at the University and enterprisesimplementing active learning programs.The dynamic capabilities to innovate and change aredeeply rooted in an organization’s ability to be ambidextrous,i.e. both to incrementally build on its traditionsand past (cultural experience) and to learn and be able todrive innovation streams. The article deals with theoreticalinvestigations and case studies of business and educationalorganizations. The researches conducted by foreignand Lithuanian investigators reveal a number ofsimilar dimensions related to the role of organizationalculture in managing strategic innovations and changes.Researchers stress deeply-rooted, strong organizationalculture as a factor contributing to sustained innovationassociated with the norms and values that support thegeneration and implementation of creative ideas.The article is aimed at overweighing some conflictingand contradictory evaluations of culture influence onorganizational development (e.g., strong cultures induceuniformity and limit individual creativity). A lot of investigationsmanifest that strong cultures foster better strategiccreativity management.Focusing on economic and educational developmentsas the level of this comparative analysis, the discussion isstarted with a brief explanation of integrating notions oforganization change and culture based on the norms thatfoster creativity, innovation, implementation and successfuldevelopment in the competitive and complex, if notsupercomplex, world. Moreover, an attempt is made tooverweigh some conflicting and contradicting considerationsabout culture as an agent inducing uniformity andlimiting individual creativity. However, a lot of researchesprove the fact that strong cultures with innovation-enhancing values and norms foster better strategicmanagement in terms of producing and implementingrelevant and the most advanced ideas.